The House Bank; House Bank Overdrafts Add to Voters' Outrage

By JEFFREY SCHMALZ,

Published: March 16, 1992

CHICAGO, March 15—
Drowning in a sea of overdrawn checks, exhausted members of Congress returned to their home districts this weekend only to be met at the door by a public shouting a giant collective "Gotcha!"

To be sure, not everyone joined the chorus, arguing that the outcry over the checks was much ado about nothing or that it took away from the real issues. But overwhelmingly -- in more than 100 interviews around the nation, in editorials and call-in shows and jokes -- the voices spoke of scorn and outrage. Many took the overdrafts as a personal insult, as a sign that Washington politicians thought they could put one over on the rubes back home.

"How could they think they could get away with this?" asked Flo Burkholder, 54, a Republican in Wauconda, about 35 miles west of here. "They think it's just a bunch of little people out in the country who will never know." Smoking Gun

Through the outrage and anger ran a thread of mischievous satisfaction: for Americans who suspected all along that those incumbents in Washington were up to no good, now there was a smoking gun.

"This is more of the same," said Allen Jason, a 42-year-old lawyer in Chicago. "It fits the pattern of voting themselves pay raises in the middle of the night. All they care about is themselves. Now at least they got called on this one. All right!"

Michael Leonard, an art critic and writer in San Francisco, said, "There's a lot of abuse and arrogance and misuse of power and this is just one of the issues."

Labeled as laughingstocks and as disgraces, some members of Congress confronted the issue head on, some said that they had been misunderstood, that they had always been in favor of disclosing the names of the overdraft writers. Really. 'Out of Touch'

Others chose simply to lie low. And there was plenty from which to lie low as a new word took hold in the American political lexicon: "Rubbergate."

A Boston Globe editorial dismissed the affair as "a pocket embarrassment, not really a scandal at all," saying the public leaped on it because it could understand it.

An editorial in The Seattle Times said that the actions of Thomas S. Foley, the Speaker of the House, "are disturbingly like those of politicians out of touch with the everyday life of the people they represent."

That was a theme picked up throughout the country, including in a Miami Herald editorial that cited "justified public outrage."

An editorial in The Los Angeles Times said, "Americans are tired of politicians being out of touch with common-sense principles."

On radio call-in shows, the tone was irate. "This issue is really going to open the floodgates on the term limitations thing," said one male caller to KGO radio in San Francisco. A Cincinnati woman who called the Larry King show said, "There should be a special prosecutor." Voter Reaction

That weather vane of American public opinion, Johnny Carson, could barely contain himself Friday night on "The Tonight Show." "Folks, you've got to hand it to our House of Representatives," he said, just for starters. "They finally passed something: 5,000 bad checks."

A poll for Newsweek magazine, conducted Friday, found that 78 percent of 513 adults interviewed would be unlikely to re-elect their member of Congress if they were among the worst of the overdraft writers. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points.

With such an outcry, it's no wonder that even members of Congress who say they had no overdrafts -- the full list won't be released until the first week of April -- took to the campaign trail to defend themselves.

A local Republican gathering in the American Legion Hall in Wauconda amounted to a virtual celebration, with Republicans patting themselves on the backs because their party was responsible for few of the overdrafts. "It sure cuts well for the Republicans," said James Eschenbauch, 44, a carpenter. 'Here's My Checkbook'

But the local congressman, Philip M. Crane, knows that the issue could work against all incumbents, including those like him who say they had no overdrafts and who pressed early for disclosure of the full list. At the meeting, Mr. Crane, who faces a challenger in the Republican primary on Tuesday, gives out literature proclaiming, "I am NOT among the congressmen who wrote bad checks."

That hasn't stopped his opponent, Gary Skoien, from milking the issue anyway. At campaign stops, he reaches into his pocket. "Here's my checkbook," he says. "I just brought it along to show you I haven't bounced any checks."

In Lowell, Mass., Michael Conway goes Mr. Skoien one better. Running for the seat of Chester G. Atkins, a Democrat who has admitted to overdrawing his House Bank account, he took to restaurants this weekend, passing out rubber checks.

"Rubbergate isn't only about bouncing checks," Mr. Conway told voters. "It's about greed and abuse of power." 'Part of the Coverup'

In Chicago, Representative Dan Rostenkowski, a Democrat, is facing a primary fight on Tuesday after reapportionment moved an enclave of reform-minded yuppies into his blue-collar district. His opponent, Dick Simpson, campaigned vigorously over the weekend, attacking Mr. Rostenkowski, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, as part of a House leadership that sought to block revealing the names of all members of Congress who overdrew their House Bank accounts.

"Rostenkowski is part of the coverup," he said at a rally. "We need a whole new group of congressmen who won't put up with this."